Lok Sabha elections 2019: Yogi rakes up Batla House encounter, targets Congress
Adityanath addressed a series of public meetings, including ones in Kaushambi and Gonda but it was in Rae Bareli, the Lok Sabha constituency of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, that he was the most vocal.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday stepped up the attack on the Congress top leadership, saying that those who failed to develop Amethi and Rae Bareli were dreaming of coming to power to run the country yet again.
Adityanath addressed a series of public meetings, including ones in Kaushambi and Gonda but it was in Rae Bareli, the Lok Sabha constituency of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, that he was the most vocal. The BJP has fielded former Congress MLC Dinesh Pratap Singh against Sonia Gandhi in Rae Bareli.
Adityanath, who is scheduled to travel to Amethi on Tuesday, the Lok Sabha constituency of Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, targeted the Congress top leadership in Rae Bareli by raising the issue of Batla House encounter.
“When the terrorists were being killed in the Batla House encounter, one of the members of the royal Gandhi family was shedding tears,” he said.
In February 2012, the then law minister Salman Khurshid had in a public rally in Azamgarh said that Sonia Gandhi had ‘wept bitterly’ after watching images of the Batla House encounter. The then Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh had subsequently clarified Khurshid’s remark but it had given handle to the BJP to target the Congress.
Seven years later, Adityanath dug up the episode by accusing the Congress leadership of going soft on terror.
“Due to this royal family, the locals are deprived of development and basic amenities. The Congress has never shed tears over the employment, financial independence and prosperity of youth,” Adityanath said.
Adityanath also accused the Congress of playing with national security and pointed out that the party had promised to scrap the sedition law if it came to power.
“The late Rajiv Gandhi was country’s PM when he said that while Delhi sends Rs 100 for the poor, barely Rs 10 reaches the intended beneficiaries. This means that back then Rs 90 was taken by the middlemen. That was the level of corruption during the Congress’ tenure. But now, Modiji helped everyone to own a Jandhan bank account. If PM Modi transfers the installment of Rs 2000 under Kisan Samman Nidhi, then it directly gets credited into farmer’s bank accounts,” he said. Adityanath also claimed that after four rounds of poll, the BJP was winning 36 out of 39 Lok Sabha seats where voting had taken place in UP. Under the present BJP government, criminals and terrorists could either stay in jail or lose their lives, he said.